sheephead

[sheep-hed]

noun

plural

sheephead ,

plural

sheepheads .

1. a large California food fish, Semicossyphus pulcher, of the wrasse family.

Word History and Origins

Origin of sheephead¹

First recorded in 1535–45; so called from the resemblance of its teeth to those of a sheep

Example Sentences

On California’s North Coast, where other urchin nemeses — like otters, spiny lobsters and sheephead — are lacking, 96% of the region’s kelp forests vanished in the decade following the sea star collapse.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The skinny señorita fish, the sex-changing sheephead, the blue-gray blacksmith, schools of rockfish and a horn shark — they’re all going about their business in a 7,500-gallon aquarium at Union Station’s east portal entrance, their audience largely reduced to marine biologist Dan Gilboa, who comes every week to check on his underwater community.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Sheephead are also running at the jetties.

Read more on Washington Times

Sheephead also are running at the jetties.

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The Department of Environmental Conservation says freshwater drum, also called sheephead, are growing much bigger than they ever have in New York waters.

Read more on Washington Times